This Sunday saw Braintree host their 3rd Sunday friendly of the season, with skipper Luke Gouldstone electing to bat first winning the toss. Dave Hale and Joe Osborne opened the batting, with the former hitting two fours within the first two overs followed by a huge maximum in the third from opening bowler Freddie Ryan. However, the slower ball would result in his wicket, tamely chipping to mid-on for a simple catch. Mark Osborne came in at 3 but bowled by a beautiful in-ducking yorker for 1 to leave Braintree 23-2. Osborne junior was next to go as he was LBW to Ryan for a duck leaving 2 new batsmen at the crease, two more players produced from the colts team in Thomas Oddy and Toby Adcock. Toby batted technically as ever for a solid 24, timing the ball to the boundary 5 times, whilst Tom took a more attacking approach, nailing the ball to the mid on boundary for 3 of his 4 boundaries. Both were going well, and it took a decent nut to break the partnership, with Adcock being bowled by one that straightened and beat the outside edge. In came Hugo Adams, who whipped his first ball off of his hip for four through square leg. However, later in that over, Oddy was bowled as well by Kandambi, looking for a big shot straight and the ball going through the gate and hitting the top of leg stump. At the beginning of the next over, Adams was bowled by left-armer Hutchinson, resulting in top scorer Ollie Gouldstone going to join Karl Parker in the middle. The pair put on 64 for the seventh wicket, with Gouldstone hitting multiple boundaries on the leg side. Unfortunately, Parker was caught and bowled for 19 bringing youngster Theo Sherry in, who ground out an excellent partnership of 72 with Gouldstone. Theo kept ticking the scoreboard over, playing a lovely four to the boundary and rotating the strike to get the big hitter at the other end. Ollie continued to go big all the way to his wicket, being caught at deep square leg for 94. As one brother got out, the other came in, this time being captain Luke, who previously hit 130* in his match winning effort 5 Sundays prior to this match. Luke proceeded to target the short boundary hitting four 4s and six 6s, sending another two balls into the abyss, finishing on 61 nor out. Sherry continued to score at a decent rate, with a lovely four down the ground, charging Sreedharan, the opening bowler who had earlier troubled the top order. This meant that Braintree finished on a great total of 306-8 after their 40 overs.
After tea, Sherry went on to open the bowling and opener Kumar went out with the intent the chase down the mammoth total required, swiping at a couple of length deliveries outside off and edging down to third man for four on both occasions, resulting in 16 off of the opening over. The skipper decided to open with leg spin at the other end through youngster Adcock, and with only two balls gone in the over he turned one past the bat and onto the stumps, sending the opener Bailey back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. This brought Chelmsford's top scorer Sreedharan to the middle, who saw off the rest of the troubling opening over from Toby. At the other end, Sherry stuck with it and proceeded to take the scalp of Kumar who had been striking at over 200, once again swiping at a regulation ball outside off stump and edging to Hale at gully, bringing number four Freddie Ryan to the crease. However, the next over, Ryan was to depart for an eight ball duck, with Toby getting one to leap off the turf and then off the bat back to himself for a simple catch. At this point the Dolphins had taken three key wickets, but Chelmsford were still going well, being 40-3 after four overs, Ahmed and Sreedharan both progressing the score. Gouldstone then brought on Joe Osborne to have his first bowl of the season, who after bowling a couple of wide looseners, bowled well, beating the bat on multiple occasions and started the dry patch for Chelmsford. At the other end, Adcock bowled out, finishing on fantastic figures of 2-29 off of his 8 overs. After three overs, Osborne was also taken off, with captain Gouldstone saving him for later. This brought Hale on at one end, who bowled economically and deserved a wicket, going at only two an over off of his 8, and Luke brought himself on at the other, bowling offies compared to his pace. Sreedharan and Ahmed continued to look to score, with the former smashing multiple punches through the covers. Gouldstone kept at with his spin, beating the bat a couple of times, before he ended taking the significant wicket of Sreedharan, who fell one short of a half-century, absolutely nailing one to Osborne at short cover, the youngster firmly keeping his hands behind the ball and eventually holding onto it after initially seeing it pop out of his hands. This meant Sreedharan had to go after batting well with Ahmed and ending their partnership of 49. Gouldstone then struck again, taking the wicket of his opposite number, Chelmsford captain Siriwardana. Ahmed and Hutchinson put on 25 before the latter chipped one to extra cover, the Gouldstone brothers linking up to leave Chelmsford 113-6. After both Gouldstone - figures of 3-30 off 8 - and Hale had bowled out, Hugo Adams came on for a bowl, finishing with respectable figures of 0-10 off 3 overs. Young opener Sherry came back on for a second spell, finishing on 1-49 off 8. However, it was Osborne who came back to take the next wicket, clean bowling Kandambi for 18 with an in-swinging yorker and finishing with 1-17 off of 4 overs. Finally, Karl Parker came on to bowl the last over, miraculously taking the last two wickets off his five balls, the first being long standing Ahmed, who edged onto his pad before the ball trickled onto the stumps and dislodged the bails. Next ball, David Hutchinson cut KP to Sherry at point, who took an outstanding one handed catch. Chelmsford finished on a respectable total of 162-9, Braintree winning by 144 runs.